Friday, June 29, 2007

iPhone day: Calendar interop picture to brighten soon?

Steve Jobs, quoted by John Markoff: "There’s already corporations who have been running pilots hooking up to Exchange servers and other kinds of mail servers, and they have gone very well." Exchange is also a calendar server. I would love to see a way to wire up one's own calendar server to talk to the iPhone calendar over the air. I will even buy a copy of Leopard if I can do this with the CalDAV server built into Leopard. Then, I would be the master of my own families' calendar sharing, because (hopefully) starting today, that will include at least one iPhone.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Windows Mobile problem persists

While a new generation of Windows Mobile devices heads for release, the current generation is mired in the calendar swamp.

That is, if you don't want to sync to other calendars via Outlook, which I don't.

Oh, and if your Windows Mobile device is just a PDA, better trade it for a Windows SmartPhone, an iPhone or something else. Otherwise, you're going to have one disappointment after another. Plaxo Mobile Plus is just the latest. (what do you mean, you don't have a carrier associated with your Windows Mobile device?)

No new negative SwampDrain points here for Plaxo. It's just a well-worn path of disappointment.

Meanwhile, River is ready for her iPhone! Like so many others.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

iPhone, Google Gears a match made in heaven?

Graeme Mathison: "Here’s my prediction (which isn’t exactly too far fetched, I don’t think): the iPhone and Google Gears are a match made in heaven. The iPhone will ship with Google Gears built in."

No way Apple would ship something now that Google still admits is early, buggy code. But even when Gears goes 1.0, I doubt that all iPhone users will abandon the iPhone's iCal interface for a reduced, AJAX-style user interface. Some will, many won't.

iPhone + AJAX good, Spanning Sync would be better

With Apple announcing that the iPhone will run AJAX apps, it seems clear that Apple expects a number of iPhone users to rely on Web calendaring, rather than the built-in iCal. The next step would be up to the folks at Spanning Sync, if only they had a true iPhone API.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Simple Sharing Extensions update

Remember Simple Sharing Extensions, Microsoft's proposed technology that, among other things, would let us easily cut and paste events between different Web calendars? After months of silence, Sam Ruby found the latest scoop.

Remember the Milk becomes first free Web calendar to go offline

Jumping on the Google Gears announcement on May 31, Ajaxian reports that online calendar site Remember the Milk has become the first such free site to provide offline calendar access. Gears is still early code, so your results may vary. More details at the Remember the Milk blog.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Messaging News puts calendar interop on its cover

Kudos to Messaging News for making calendar interoperability the cover story of its May/June 2007 issue. Recommended reading. And to those of you who found Calendar Swamp through this story, welcome. We have several hundred FeedBurner subscribers, and the number is growing. I also like the Messaging News headline -- Calendaring: Why Isn't It Just Like Email?